Bum Note from Mail Columnist

There were red faces at the Daily Mail yesterday as it was revealed that, due to a printing error, Richard Littlejohn’s readers have been left with the impression that he is an obsessive homophobe.

Every week for the last seven years this error has been reproduced, finding its way into numerous articles where hatred of gays was not even remotely relevant.

‘We don’t know how this happened,’ said a colleague who didn’t wish to be identified. ‘But it’s been there in every single column. Someone should have spotted it long ago.’

Speaking from his open-plan loft conversion in Hoxton, Littlejohn said ‘this is extremely embarrassing. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a laid-back sort of guy. Hating is not my thing.’

This is not the first time such a mistake has afflicted Fleet Street’s columnists. Last year it was revealed that a misunderstanding at the Daily Mirror had led to a sub-editor inserting blatant misogyny into everything Tony Parsons ever writes.